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2016, here we go!

It’s become a habit at this time of the year, but nevertheless I’m really happy to share this with you: Møller Bil Motorsport is ready for the 2016 VLN season, and I will do my 12th season at the mother of all race tracks – the Nürburgring Nordschleife!

We will continue with our SP3T Audi TT 2,0 TFSI and with the same drivers like this season, where we ended up with two wins and two second places. Let’s aim for even better results next year!

Like before we will not do all ten races in the VLN championship, but five or six, and that means that we will not fight for a championship title in 2016 either. Many people, especially in Norway, ask why we don’t do all the races, and I guess many think this is a bit “halfhearted”. It’s not at all, but to understand this, you also need to understand the VLN championship.

The fact is that in six VLN-races I drive approximately 2200 kilometers (practice, qualifying and race). With three drivers the car goes more than 6600 kilometers. In comparison, a driver in the World Rallycross Championship drives around 600 kilometers in one season, and as you know – in motorsports kilometers equals expenses.

With ten races, the VLN is actually an extremely long championship. Other professional championships like the WEC, SuperGT, Blancpain, EMLS etc. has fewer and often shorter races. And as I say to my Norwegian friends; in one VLN race I drive more kilometers than I did during my whole season in the Norwegian Seven Championship some years ago. So in my mind, one victory in VLN equals one Norwegian championship title! There is also just one winner of the VLN despite a lot of classes, and to be the winning team you need to drive in one of the biggest classes to get enough points, and that is also one of the reasons why a lot of teams drive selected races like us.

But I don’t race to win championship titles. I race because I love it, because it’s great team work, because I still have something to give, because racing on the Nordschleife is one of the biggest challenges in motorsports and to win as many races as possible. I’m still learning and I’m faster for each year. This year my team won two races on the world’s longest race track, I set pole and fastest laps, and ended the season with a new personal race lap record. The aim is to do even better next season.

And I’m so happy to be a part of Møller Bil Motorsport. I really feel like I’m a factory driver in this team; everything is so professional, from our Norwegian Møller Bil mechanics to our German engineers, and to be able to drive a factory car like our Audi TT is a dream come true. And time after time we have beaten high level teams, like Subaru STi from Japan and others. We are like a big family, and I couldn’t asked for a better team to be a part of.

To prepare for my 12th season as a semi-professional race car driver is also surreal. When you’re a normal kid from middle-class Norway you don’t expect to race cars for 25 years. I ran out of money for racing many years ago, but I got my lucky break with this great team, and that I’m so thankful for. So thank you to all that makes this possible! I will do my utmost to ensure that 2016 will be our best year ever!